An Eternity or Two
by Tara M
Summary: Faith finally meets her match during a night of patrol. Kind of an AU fic.


Title: An Eternity or Two  
Author: TaraM  
Distribution: Ask me, I'll probably say yes.  
Summary: Faith meets her match during a night of routine patrol.   
Notes: Wacky timeline here - Faith is evil, Spike and Drusilla are back in Sunnydale and still together. I guess this could be seen as an alternate ending to Graduation Day Pt 1, ie. instead of ending up in a coma, this is what happened to Faith. Lyrics are from the song 'Emily Says' by Chainsuck.   
Disclaimer: Joss's, not mine.  
  
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Adrenaline pounds through my veins as my feet slap the cold grass, one after another. God, I love this, it's what we slayers live for - the hunt, the thrill of the chase. What a feeling. It's almost better than sex. Almost.  
  
I don't know why I'm patrolling tonight. After all - now that I'm officially on the 'Dark Side of the Force', eradicating evil seems kinda, well, sacreligious. Weird, huh? Must be some residual goodness thing - all part and parcel of the fabulous Slayer package, I guess.  
  
In all honesty, I'm out here because I have serious energy to burn. The mayor told me to stay in, the night before the ascension and all that, but something in me's just gonna pop if I don't get a workout. Least I know I won't run into B, she'll be too busy preparing - useless, if you ask me - for tomorrow.   
  
I'm disappointed in the vampire I'm hunting.. a mindless newborn so overcome with bloodlust, he doesn't pose a threat at all. Damn. His eyes - the amber ones, his true eyes now - are so glazed over with thirst that he's actually stupid enough to stop running, and turns, God, this asshole's actually gonna try and take me on! Fuck, I hate it when they're so easy, no real workout for me. Since I'm so bored, I let this guy come within an arm's length of me. Raising my eyebrow at the momentary hope in his eyes - this guy thinks he can beat me! No one can beat me! - my wrist snakes out and the stake goes in. He's dust.  
  
~Cause she took a bullet in the back  
And she didn't die  
Emily says hello and not goodbye~  
  
I move on, still itching to get rid of this energy. I'm so bored that I decide to stop even pretending to be stealthy - let them come and get me - so I let my feet come down hard on the grass. I contemplate whistling, but that's so not me. Not a whistler, nosiree. Someone like Buffy, now they'd be a whistler. 'Cept Buffy's too pure hearted and perfect to even contemplate whistling in a graveyard while on patrol - she's more the 'cower in the shadows' type. Not a true slayer, uh uh. She fucked up the system when she came back - if she'd just stayed dead, none of this crap might have happened. Hell, who knows - maybe I wouldn't have 'gone bad' if it was just me, if I didn't have to compete with her. Actually, I really think I would have anyway. I overheard her little friend, Willow, once, talking about me and Buffy:   
  
"Some people just don't have that in them." Well, I do, sister. I got 'that' in me in shitloads. And I like it. It feels great.  
  
Christ, I'm bored. Nothing out here even posing a threat. What was it Giles said once that Buffy faithfully relayed to me? "90% of the vampire slaying game is waiting." Well, screw that. I'm outta here - maybe I can find a better way to use up my energy.   
  
I turn to leave, and screech to a halt with my face inches away from another. Some brunette chick, in a long black dress. Pretty, bit psycho looking - but who am I to talk? She looks at me, it seems like she's drinking in all the details of my face. Something about this chick unnerves me, and I take a step back. Yes children, that's right - me, Faith, the slayer, backing down.  
  
She's swaying from side to side. And the slightly insane award goes to... "Hello, kitten. The stars sang to me last night, they told me I'd find a friend out here." Christ, that's not what I was expecting. She's got an accent, too - British. Wonder if she knows Giles? Maybe I should run get him - a fucking reunion! As usual, my smart mouth gets me in trouble.  
  
"Sorry honey, I don't need any friends. I think what you're looking for is a room with padded walls and a jacket that does up in the back?" There we go, that's better. Faith is back in form!  
  
~~Cause she took a bullet in the back  
And she didn't die  
Emily says hello and not goodbye~~  
  
Her face crumples and she bows her head. Jesus Christ, looks to me like this bitch is crying! I can hear something, very faintly, and I realise it's her. She's started to hum, or something. Aint that ironic, don'tcha think? The noise gets louder as her mouth starts to open and she ends in one hell of a wailing crescendo. She seems so distracted by my rejection that I see my chance. My hand reaches up behind me and a stake is pulled from my pants. She hears me or something, and her head snaps up - amber eyes, ridged forehead, glistening fangs. Her tears are gone - guess she didn't want my friendship that badly. Oh well, that doesn't bother me. I'm the slayer, no one can take me, I'm so fucking invincible!  
  
The stake is so, so painfully close to her heart when a hand - not hers - shoots out of nowhere, yanking my wrist so far back that an inhuman howl of pain is ripped out of my mouth. Numb with shock and pain, blinding pain, I glance down at my wrist and gag. My wrist is so totally fucked that the skin - my skin - is hanging in threads, blood pooling on the ground beneath it. Wow. Slayers are the same as everyone else when it comes down to it, it seems. Dark red blood, nothing new there, except that this is MY blood, and bone. White, glistening bone. I can see my bone!!  
  
I blink back hot tears as I realise I've landed on my ass. The brunette chick is standing in front of me, off to the right. She's laughing with glee. Bitch. There's a pair of black boots in front of me. My eyes follow them up, slowly, ohsoslowly - black jeans, red shirt, black leather duster. They connect with icy blue eyes, attached to the most amazing face I've ever seen - white-blond hair, and the best cheekbones ever. Different circumstances, this guy would already be on his back for me.  
  
"Now, now. My baby wanted to be nice, wanted to make friends. Aint that right, princess?" The chick nods, pitifully. "Well, now you know what happens when you fuck with Dru, pet. You fuck with me." Dru. That sounds famil- ohmygod, fuckfuckfuck, Drusilla. Back when I was a good little girl, B told me about her. Wicked nasty bitch, if I recall. Doesn't rate too high on the sanity board. Of course, according to B, I probably don't have a stellar rating on that board either. B said that she was nothing compared to her boyfriend, brutal bastard by all acounts. So this must be him - "Spike."  
  
Looking back, if I'd known that was going to be my last word, I probably would have said something cooler. Of course, looking back, I probably wouldn't have been in the cemetery in the first place. Anyway, back to the present.  
  
At the sound of his name, his eyes flash momentarily with the thrill of recognition. "Heard of me, have you ducks?" I stare, frozen to the spot like a fucking deer in the headlights. "Then you'll know that between us, me and Dru have taken out three of you slayer birds. So let's make that total an even four." His face has changed as he's been speaking. Just like her, just like any run-of-the-mill vamp, I guess. So why does this seem so much worse?  
  
Oh shit. I don't want to die! I'll be good! I'll reform! Dear God, please, please don't let me die!  
  
His body lands on top of mine with a resounding smack. Huh, shame I'm about to die. Wouldn't have minded burning my extra energy with this guy on top of me. His hand grabs my hair and yanks my head back, exposing my neck to him. This is it! As his fangs descend and pierce open my skin, my body jerks forward with agony. As I can sense my death approaching, my mind starts showing images, like a little silent movie. Wow - my life's actually flashing through my eyes. Never thought that'd happen!  
  
My watcher, my poor dead watcher in Boston, who I couldn't save. Mayor Wilkins - he loves me, I know he does, he'll save me! Xander, the only guy that actually wanted our "connection" to mean anything and I discarded him - I'm so sorry! Giles. Willow. Jesus, even Wesley's there - gee Wes, guess the Council's none too impressed with you, huh? That guy. The one that started it all, really started it all. The deputy mayor that I killed, what's his name again? Allan. Allan Finch. Christ almighty, I'm so sorry, oh so sorry, I didn't mean it, I didn't know! Angel. Those painfully large brown eyes of his, that stared straight into me and KNEW that I needed help, and he tried, God he tried! The images slow almost to a halt and I know that my end is near. But one more face has to appear. And, of course, it does.   
  
Buffy. (oh my god, I'm dying, I'm actually dying, this is it!) She tried so hard to befriend me, even after I'd started to treat her like absolute shit. God B, I'd take it all back if I could! I'd be the best friend ever, I swear! Sleepovers, braids, pizza, you name it, I'll do it!  
  
Maybe, just maybe, if I'd accepted their help, if I'd really let them in, let them try, I wouldn't be lying here right now, underneath a vampire, feeling my life draining out of me.  
  
~I'm tired of locking all the doors  
Laughing to myself  
Because it's such a joke  
Doors are only locks and wood  
These days you hit fire  
Before you ever feel the smoke  
This is just the way it is now  
Don't cry   
You know you should be laughing somehow  
Yeah you should be laughing~  
  
My heart has actually slowed so much that I can hear it coming to a stop. Lyrics of some song I used to love suddenly appear, and I realise I've been reciting them in my head all night. Wanna know why? Because in a sad, sad way, they're the story of my life. Now that they're crystal clear, instead of just a nagging rhythm, I realise. My death is now at hand. Shame I have such an aversion to humming - if I'd sung the words out earlier maybe I wouldn't be here, dying. So many ifs. Story of my life.   
  
~I'm tired of tasting my own blood  
It's dripping down my throat  
Where the birds used to be  
I know it's going to take a flood of flowers  
Just to banish everything I see  
This is just the way it is now  
Don't cry  
You know you should be laughing somehow  
Yeah you should be laughing-~  
  
Spike withdrew his fangs from the dead girl's throat. "Another slayer down, darling. Want a taste?" He offered Drusilla his wrist, delighting in the exquisite feeling of her, his sire, drinking from him. Her eyes shone with lust and love as she swallowed.   
  
"And how should we get rid of this one? Leave her at the watcher's doorstep?" Drusilla slowly shook her head. "This one is out of favour with the watcher and the slayer's little friends. Can't leave her there." Spike chuckled with glee. "Oh well. I guess we'll just have to leave her here to rot, then."   
  
As he took her hand in his, Drusilla asked him sweetly, "Spike? When can we have another? Another slayer?" Strolling through the moonlit cemetery, he purred in her ear. "No rush, princess. We have, after all, got an eternity or two."  
  
A vampire appeared from behind the DuLac crypt as they walked away. Looking down upon the dead girl, whom he had been following all night - Mayor's orders, to protect the girl - he murmured to himself.  
  
"The boss aint gonna be happy."  
  
~~END~~  
  



End file.
